Swap XFi engine for current I4?
 

I have been doing my own work on my car whenever possible. I have a 1994 Suzuki Swift with a 1.3L engine and a 5MT. I recently found a person within a couple hours of my house that has a 1994 Geo Metro XFi that he is parting out. It has 194,000 miles, which seems like a lot to me, and has me asking myself (now you) some questions...

• How long do XFi engines tend to run? They said it is running perfectly, but it does have almost 200,000 on the engine.
• What kind of FE boost would I see? 10%? 15%? Less/more? With the current I4 1.3L engine I routinely get 50mpg+ to work and back with nice weather. Would a swap to a I3 1.0L engine make that much of a difference?
• What is the horsepower rating on the XFi? I am currently "boasting" 70HP and 70pounds of torque, I am sure the new engine would feel less peppy, especially on the hills...
• I have around 172,000 on my engine, so I would probably keep running it until something happened, then make the change. Would it be a big job to swap then engines? I imagine they share most of the same mounting points, but my current engine has an extra cylinder, so would I need to acquire/fab mounting brackets?
• How much does an XFi engine weigh? I would be transporting it in my car... which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to unload it alone.
• I can also buy the transmission, worth the buy? My Swift already has the tallest gears... it would just be a spare I guess, unless I could mess with the gearing in my current transmission...

Thanks in advance!

Who is the guy? Cause I could use a transmission...

Keep your 4 banger, unless you just want absolute MPGs... The added power is nice. You can load the engine by yourself, not problem. Tranny+engine is like 135lbs.

He's over by Gadsden. FYI, he is selling Engine + Transmission + ECU, I haven't asked him about just Engine + ECU, or just transmission.
I think part of the problem is that since I started doing my own work, I notice more "sounds". The first one I noticed turned out to be the alternator, which I replaced... I guess the "back up engine" would just be nice in case anything happened.
I had planned on keeping the I4 until something happens (It could be another 100k miles), I would just feel better if I had a solid replacement engine waiting. My wife and I have been looking at minivans, because she doesn't know how long my Suzuki will last. If Suzi dies, I would get the Prius, and she would get a minivan. I figure having a replacement engine could head off the need for a minivan before we NEED one (big capitol cost + recurring cost (it uses more gas)). It's not just about the HUGE mpg potential, but about delaying the purchase of another vehicle.

You can rebuild the I4 pretty easily...

You would want the whole car for a swap. The clutch cable, speedo cable, axles, shift support, trans mount location are all different. I would drive the Swift and try to locate a spare 1.3 if I were you. imho I have done this swap in a 95.
Andy

I had come to the conclusion that I may not want to store an engine for as long as it would be before needing it, and not knowing what my living situation will be when our house sells, I didn't want to pay for storage on it either. I am glad to hear that my decision was a good one based on the number of parts that would be needed... I could get the whole car, but I don't know how storing a whole car would be better than storing an engine... Thanks for the input!
Wyatt